RIA Advisory Group LLC Takes $219,000 Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

RIA Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Marino Stram & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $339,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $484,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 534 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 86.2% during the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 39,671 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,194,000 after buying an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 price objective (down previously from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $118.92.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.6 %

BX stock traded down $1.92 on Friday, hitting $118.40. 4,122,973 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,727,302. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $79.92 and a twelve month high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The business’s fifty day moving average is $126.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $117.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 205.46%.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.